Jesse H. Turner (1930 - 2017)

Article by Dr. Clara Small

COBBLER, MASTER CRAFTSMAN, BUSINESSMAN, ENTREPRENEUR, AND CIVIC-MINDED ACTIVIST 

Jesse Turner inside The Shoe Box, once located in Berlin

Jesse Hersley Turner was born December 19, 1930 in Craddockville, in Accomac County, Virginia to Emma Sample and Esley Turner. His first five years were spent on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, but at five years of age his grandmother, Hester Henry took him to live in Berlin, Maryland. His early education was in the Germantown Elementary School in Berlin, and in 1948 he graduated from Worcester County (Colored) High School. ​

Worcester Junior & Senior High School, also referred to as Worcester High School

​Jesse Turner graduated from high school at the age of seventeen, but at the time there was very little opportunity for him to obtain gainful employment. After not being able to find a suitable job, one day as he was walking down the street in Berlin, he saw a help wanted sign that advertised for someone to work in a shoe repair shop.  He was hired as a shoe-shine boy, and he carefully observed the work of the other employees as they repaired shoes for their customers.   

Cobbling became his life’s work.  It was not an easy job, and it took him about five or six years before he became proficient in the trade.  After another eight or ten years, he was capable of running the shop alone because it also gave him the opportunity to practice on the machinery, and he also learned how to properly repair them.  He rapidly learned that safety was important at all times because it meant that he had to be cognitive of wearing the right type of clothing, and thinking safety at all times.  Even more important, he liked what he was doing. 

He sincerely loved his job, but he was drafted into the United States Army and served from 1955 to 1957, which temporarily kept him from practicing his craft. The GI Bill benefits he earned during his tour of duty in South Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona were used in later years to help defray the cost of his education at Delaware Technical Community College (DTCC), in Georgetown, Delaware.  In the early 1970s, he took a business course at DTCC when he thought of possibly becoming a radio and television technician.  However, he soon realized that was not to have been his occupation or mission in life, so he continued to work as a cobbler. 

When Jesse began his journey to become a cobbler and shoe repairman, shoes were made of leather, the “good stuff,” as he called it, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s, twenty-five or thirty years ago, the soles of most shoes were composed of rubber or other materials that could not be repaired in the traditional manner.  As a result, a majority of his work consisted of the construction and the rebuilding of orthopedic shoes, as well as the repair of very expensive shoes worn by doctors, nurses, and lawyers.  Most of that work was prescriptive from doctors and it consisted of building up shoes by one-half or one-quarter of an inch. 

The repairing of shoes was a labor of love for Jesse Turner, and he was in business for over sixty years in the same shop and in the same location, The Berlin Shoe Box, on Main Street in Berlin.  In 1977, he purchased the shop from his second employer and continued the business under the same name.   Mr. Jesse Turner became the town of Berlin’s first African American owner of a shoe repair business.  He believed that he had been in the shoe repair business longer than anyone else south of Dover to Cape Charles, Virginia.  For many years, he was the only African American to have a shop on the plaza.  He was also the second African American in town who worked on the plaza. 

Berlin Shoe Box at 112 North Main Street. Today the building holds Main Street Nails. Photo from the Berlin Chamber of Commerce.

​His work was a challenge because he worked mainly on saddles, golf bags, leather-made gun holders, and other objects.  He was basically self-taught, even though there was a cobbler repair school in Philadelphia, but it was not feasible for him to attend at the time.  The machinery in his shop was nearly 150 years old, but he learned to repair it because there were so few people who knew the trade and how to repair the machinery. 

Mr. Turner was also involved in other enterprises as well.  He also owned a grass cutting business.  It was in that business that he hired young males in order to teach them monetary responsibility and to learn “the Protestant work ethic.”  It was a profitable business for approximately five years, and the young males and one young lady worked for him until some parents took their hard-earned money and the incentive to work was taken away from the young workers.  Mr. Turner served as a mentor to those young men, who continued to work in the grass cutting business and eventually established their own businesses.  Mr. Turner eventually gave up the grass cutting business at the age of 65.  

As a shop owner, Mr. Turner was a member of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce.  He served as the first African American Chamber member, and he served as president of the Chamber from 1993-1994.  He was an active participant in many of its activities, and one of his favorite events was the Annual Bathtub Race, which he won for nearly twenty years.  In order to compete in the races, he built his own bathtub and his competitors anxiously waited for him to retire so that they could win.  He won more races in the history of the Berlin Bathtub Races than anyone.  

​He was also actively involved in the reformatting of the Berlin Christmas Parade that has been called Turner’s greatest achievement.  For over twenty-plus years, he was in charge of Berlin’s Old Fashioned Memorial Day Celebration, with the assistance of Emma Briddell, Sandra Oliver and Gabe Purnell.  Some of his other projects included the Fiddler’s Convention and the renovation of the Germantown School. 

The Germantown School project was near and dear to Mr. Turner’s heart because his early education began there.  The Germantown School had remained in active use until 1962, eight years after the United States Supreme Court rendered the Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas decision of May 17, 1954.  With the Brown decision and the “all deliberate speed” decision of May 1955, the belief that American society and the quality of education would be equalized and that black schools would have received the same quality of books, equipment, school structures and the salaries of all teachers would be the same, did not materialize, at least for the next 20 years.  The reality was that most formerly all-black schools were vacated or abandoned, and most African American principals and teachers lost their jobs or were demoted. 

Germantown School, as many other all-black schools nationwide, had provided the rudiments of an education for hundreds of children and had spurred their growth, and that thirst for knowledge to succeed despite the odds that had been against them.  In spite of its contributions to society and the education of multitudes, Germantown School was closed because the Worcester County Board of Education no longer needed it as a school.  On December 11, 1962, for the sum of one dollar, the school was turned over to the County Highway Association, and it converted the former school into a county road barn.  The Association removed the front wall, the floor and windows, installed four garage bays and a ground level concrete floor and made it a truck and storage garage. 

Some former students of the Germantown School, including Jesse Turner, former teachers, and concerned citizens recognized the value of their heritage, and the struggles they endured in order to have obtained an education, as well as the heroic efforts that had been made by their teachers and concerned others to obtain those goals, in spite of the racism and discrimination that prevailed at that time.  In 1995, some of those concerned citizens met, organized, and five years later, established an article of incorporation as the Germantown School Community Heritage Center.  In 2000, the Germantown School, a Rosenwald School, was designated as a historic site, and through the insistence of James Purnell, the committee was granted ownership of the school for the purpose of preserving it.  After a series of grants, and the corporation of Worcester County and the State of Maryland, the Germantown School Committee successfully completed the renovation of the school.  James Purnell served as the first president of the committee for ten years.  The second president of the Committee, as well as a member of the Board of Directors was Jesse Turner.  By 2010, the Committee held a ground breaking ceremony that officially began the renovation of the school.  The renovation was completed in May of 2013, and Jesse Turner and the other members of the committee continued to work and preserve the school that had provided their earliest rudiments of an education and provided the foundation of their educational and life experiences. 

Germantown School today in its restored state.

Due to his involvement in the local community, Mr. Jesse Turner was the recipient of many awards and accolades.  One award was the 40th Annual Berlin Award (2005), which is presented annually to an individual who has by unselfish effort and dedication, made outstanding contributions to community service in the town of Berlin.  In 2010, he received the Omega Psi Phi Award for Businessman of the Year.  He was one of the original members of the Go-Kart Unit of ABACAHAB, the award-winning unit that traveled across the county and country. He was a 33rd Degree Life member of the Prince Hall Masons, Lincoln Lodge # 53.  He was Past Master of Lincoln Lodge No. 53 Free and Accepted Masons, Prince Hall affiliation in Berlin where he had been a member for 57 years.  He was also recognized for nine years as Imperial Deputy of the Oasis of Prince Hall Shriner of Abulahab Temple No. 206.  Mr. Turner was Past Commander-in-Chief of King David Consistory No.284, Past Potentate of Abulahab Temple and many other honors.  He also held the distinction of having been the first African American Potentate in Berlin and served in that capacity in 1984.  In 2006, Mr. Jesse Turner was named Grand Inspector General by the United Supreme Council No. 33 of Freemasonry.   

After more than 60 years as a cobbler, Mr. Turner still loved his craft but was concerned that it was a dying profession because of the type of materials of which the shoes and soles were made. He was also concerned that there were almost no young people desirous of entering or taking the time to become a cobbler.  Despite those concerns, Mr. Turner had celebrity customers who attested to the quality of his work.  One customer, the country singer and musician, Johnny Cash, his wife, June Carter Cash, and a bodyguard walked into Mr. Turner’s shop in 1994 and asked him to stretch Johnny’s boots, because they were too tight.  Cash pulled off his boots, walked down Main Street, Berlin, in his socks and ate lunch, while his boots were stretched.  Johnny Cash had been performing in Ocean City at the time, but before he left the shop he signed a picture for Mr. Turner.  Cash’s picture and autograph were proudly displayed on the wall of Mr. Turner’s shop.  Another celebrity and politician, Spiro Agnew, who as Governor of the State of Maryland once owned a home in Ocean City, often visited Mr. Turner’s shop.  When Spiro Agnew became Vice President of the United States, he and his wife continued to visit Mr. Turner’s shop for the repair of their shoes and other items, but he did not like to be announced to the customers in Mr. Turner’s shop, as he wanted to remain anonymous.  The Agnew portrait and signature were also displayed on Mr. Turner’s wall, as well as others.   

During the filming of the movie “Runaway Bride,” Julie Roberts’ shoes from the movie were prominently displayed close to a mounted poster of the movie in his shop.  Other stories of Mr. Turner’s craftsmanship spread beyond Berlin and prospective customers searched him out to repair their items.  For instance, on September 1, 2015, a lady entered the shop and inquired if Mr. Turner could repair a man’s toiletry case that formerly belonged to President Woodrow Wilson.  Mr. Turner took the prized object, inspected it and gave the lady a date on which to retrieve her case.  She left with the assurance that her case would be given the best of care and that it would be restored to its former condition. 

After over sixty years as a cobbler, Mr. Turner still had all of his fingers.  He loved his craft, but he did not know who would continue his work after his retirement.  Unfortunately, he was not able to find anyone he could have trained or leave his business.  Mr. Turner had a fantastic career, a rewarding business, had an excellent reputation as the only cobbler in the Berlin area, and had practiced a craft that required an immense amount of skill, patience, and love.  In early 2017, he retired and as a testament to his service to the community, the Germantown School Community Heritage Center Executive Board presented to Mr. Turner a plaque in recognition of his 68 years of service to the Berlin community on March 7, 2017.  Sadly, March 31, 2017, a mere 24 days later, Mr. Jesse Hersley Turner passed away, and he was eulogized on April 8, 2017 at First Baptist Church in Salisbury, Maryland.  His remains were interred at the Maryland Veterans Cemetery in Hurlock, Maryland.  Mr. Jesse Turner will be remembered as a community activist, a businessman, and an entrepreneur, but most of all, he will be remembered as a master craftsman.  

Jesse Hersley Turner in his Abulahab Temple attire